(Newser)
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Two suicide bombers—one of them impersonating a police officer—killed at least 12 people and injured 18 others in the southern Russian province of Dagestan today. Nine police officers were among the dead. The blasts in the North Caucasus region came two days after a twin suicide bombing tore through the Moscow subway, killing 39 and wounding scores.

In today's attacks, one suicide bomber detonated explosives in a town near the Chechnyan border when traffic police tried to stop the bomber's car. As investigators and residents gathered at the scene of the blast, a second bomber wearing a police uniform approached and set off explosives, killing the town's police chief, among others. While the Moscow subway bombing shocked Russians, the North Caucasus region, home to a separatist Islamist insurgency, is prone to more frequent attacks.